Abstract

Cathedrals have become important visitor attractions, but sacred buildings are typically ancient structures with high conservation and maintenance running costs that their managers struggle to fund. Cathedrals remain underfunded visitor attractions due to the limited opportunities for revenue generation they present. Visitor donations can be an appropriate way to raise much-needed funding, but any commercial activity in a sacred setting must allow the site to maintain its spiritual character.
This paper explored visitor attitudes towards donations in Chichester Cathedral through the use of a self-administered questionnaire. It found that 94% of respondents were aware of the donation appeals and that 71% of them went on to make a donation, with the visitors aged 50 to 69 and living within 25 miles of the Cathedral being the most frequent and generous donors. When asked to suggest what they would consider an appropriate donation, 44% of respondents gave a figure between £1 and £2.
This paper suggest measures that Chichester Cathedral managers can implement to increase visitor donations and makes recommendations on how other similar heritage attractions and sacred sites can increase visitor donations. Among these recommendations, the most significant is the identification and targeting of donors’ personal meanings to give a donation and in the case of Chichester Cathedral, to specifically target these on their local, middle-aged visitors.